Tag: The Role of SenseMaking in Social Change

Building on our work in progress Humantific CoFounder GK VanPatter shares insights on operationalizing civic innovation capacity building today. Humantific is proud to be a founding member of HumanCities Collaborative a new multi-firm consortium created to help civic leaders operationalize human-centered civic innovation in tangible, understandable and scalable ways. Continue Reading..

From the Humantific Collection here are more early Isotype Institute visualizations. Today in some circles, these might be referred to as “data visualizations” or “infographics”, previously referred to as “statistical graphics”, “picture statistics”, “pictorial statistics”, “information design” and or “information visualizations”. 🙂 No shortage of terms now in play. If we want to use such terms these might be thought of as societal context infographics made with a specific, very practical purpose in mind.

Close to our own Humantific work, in terms on social change-making intention, we have deep respect for the work of Isotype [International System of Typographic Picture Education] Institute. Led by Otto Neurath [1882-1945], Isotype was a pioneer in the realm of what we know today to be Social SenseMaking. In the tsunami of data visualizations being generated today it is important to note some fundamental differences.Continue Reading..

The Measure of America and Humantific team are delighted to announce the publication of the next chapter in the Measure of America Series:A Portrait of Marin.

This Social SenseMaking project was initiated and funded by the forward thinking Marin Community Foundation, the primary center for philanthropy in Marin County, California, and one of the largest community foundations in the United States.

Following the recently published Measure of America report, A Portrait of California, this report is focused on Marin County, located across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. Marin is known for its affluence and natural beauty, yet careful analysis reveals that the quality of life among different groups varies considerably. While some Marinites are enjoying extraordinarily high levels of well-being, others are experiencing levels of health, education, and living standards that are ranked lower than the worst-scoring state in the United States. Rankings are provided for the major racial and ethnic groups, men and women, native- and foreign-born residents, and Marin’s fifty-one census tracts for which there are reliable U.S Census data.

One goal of The Measure of America social sensemaking series is to surface and inform deeper understanding of complex societal issues that need to be addressed and constructively changed. For those interested in the subject: Social SenseMaking for ChangeMaking is about clarity not simplicity.

Key Findings:

There is a 13-year gap in life expectancy separating residents of Ross, who live 88 years, and residents of Hamilton in southern Novato, who only live 75 years.

While fewer than 30 percent of American adults have completed at least a four-year college degree, in Marin, over half have.

In Marin, as across the nation, the schools whose students have greater needs tend to get fewer dollars.

Though Marin’s planners have targeted employment in areas such as biotechnology and software as a way to stimulate the recovery and the county’s long-term growth, the lion’s share of job growth that has occurred over the last two decades in Marin is overwhelmingly at the other end of the scale: low-wage service employment.